Irresistible Magic (13 page)

I shoved my phone back in my pocket and ran out of the shed, finding her pressed against the building.

“Get over here.” She indicated the space to her left as she peered around the corner.

Crouching down, I snapped my fingers and Link joined me. He was vibrating with anticipation, ready to shift if anything went down. I ran a calming hand down his back. Shifting now would guarantee we were spotted. “What’s going on?” I whispered.

She waved a hand to silence me. Link pitched his ears forward as unintelligible voices floated through the yard.

Crap. Someone was here. Had the suspect been released? I tightened my grip around the stun gun and sucked in slow, calming breaths. I could do this.

“Get to the shed. All the files are in there.” The deep male voice was close.

“Shit,” Phoebe murmured. “They’re coming. Move.” She nudged my shoulder, pushing me toward the back of the structure.

But I was cemented in place. Thick honey vampire energy kept my feet glued to the ground. My wings flexed in panic and a cold sweat blossomed over my body.

“Wil,” Phoebe hissed in my ear. “Move it.”

I shook my head, positive my expression was frantic. “Vampire,” I mouthed, knowing just how close he had to be.

Her eyes went wide with startled surprise. It was barely eleven a.m. The sun was shining full force. If there was a vampire here, that meant only one thing.

A daywalker.

And Phoebe’s sun agate would mean nothing.

The energy got thicker with each passing second. The sensation pressed in on me, making it hard to breathe.

“David?” Phoebe mouthed back.

I shook my head, wishing that was the case. I’d accidently turned David into a daywalker not too long ago. One of the side effects of his transformation was that I could no longer sense him when he was around. His touch no longer caused me physical pain, either. The vamp on the other side of the shed definitely wasn’t David.

“Someone’s already been here,” another man with a nasally voice said.

“No. They’re still here,” Deep Voice replied.

Phoebe sprang to her feet, her agate in one hand and something silver in the other. Link vibrated, his head morphing into a large wolf shape while his bones contorted and elongated until he was a snarling, full-fledged wolf.

Me? I was trapped in my own personal vampire hell. I’d never been affected as much by a vamp before. Normally it took prolonged exposure or a major energy depletion to cause a reaction so intense. I had no idea what was going on.

In true Phoebe fashion, she charged around the building, Link at her side, and yelled, “Siste!”

A loud chuckle came from above me. I glanced up and caught a glimpse of a medium-built man dressed in a beige seersucker suit, but his facial features were obscured by his fedora. How old school of him. He moved away without noticing me and the vamp pressure lessened slightly, just enough that I was able to shuffle to the edge of the shed.

Halfway to the house, Phoebe tackled a thin, balding man. They went down in a tangle of limbs.

“Get off, you dumb bitch,” her victim cried.

“Not likely, you sorry sack of vampire lover.” She coldcocked him and he went limp.

I stumbled to Phoebe’s side. The instant she touched my arm, a cool, numbing sensation filtered through me and the vampire energy no longer weighed me down. I still felt him. He hadn’t left; I was just functional again.

Link stood in front of the shed, howling up at the vampire.

“Is there a reason you attacked my nephew, Agent Kilsen?” the vampire asked, more curious than angry.

Phoebe raised one eyebrow. “How do you know who I am?”

A ghost of a smile teased his lips.

“Why are you here?” Phoebe demanded with a snarl.

The vamp shifted. One second he was on the roof, the next he was standing less than a foot in front of us. He reached out and traced one finger down my cheek. A line of fire burned where he touched me and I flinched, swallowing the gasp of agony. Oh, no. I was not going to stand there and let him torment me.

I lashed the stun gun out, blindly connecting with him. My arm vibrated in time with the vampire’s growl. Somehow the electric current seemed to keep us connected and as my vision cleared, we locked eyes. His angry, ice-blue ones bored into mine and fear filled my soul. Once the gun ran out of juice, I was dead. If I let go now, he’d kill me.

Another growl and Link was on him. He sank his fangs into the vamp and then let go, howling in pain. Link! Shit. He twitched, fell to the ground, and then went limp, his fur standing on end. Phoebe had moved and was now standing behind the vamp, blue witch light streaming from her fingertips.

The vampire was contained in a holding pattern of my electric current. His face contorted in obvious pain, but the gun wasn’t bringing him to his knees like it should.

“Now!” Phoebe cried. I broke the connection while simultaneously thrusting my wings. I shot off the ground and flew toward Link, who was lying a few feet away. If I could get to him, my touch would help.

The vampire spun in my direction and leaped for me. “I’ve been waiting for this moment, Rhoswen.”

Phoebe’s blue magic crackled like fire over his body, stopping him. I’d seen this spell before. The second the blue flame hit the vamp, he should’ve started to burn from the inside out. This vampire, however, did no such thing. He writhed as if he was weighted down with chains, but clearly neither of us had caused him any damage.

“Grab Link!” Phoebe cried.

I was already on him, forcing my life magic into his battered body. He was still alive, thank the Goddess, but his breathing was shallow and his pulse was faint. “Come on, buddy.”

My life magic could restore pretty much any living thing, but Link was a magical shifter and it took more than a little bit of will to force it into him. I was sweating and cursing as I waited for my power to help restore his vitals.

“Let’s go,” Phoebe cried.

I glanced at her. She was struggling to maintain her own power. This vamp was old. Incredibly old. That’s why I’d felt him so strongly and why Phoebe was unable to contain him.

We had to get out of there. Under my touch, Link shifted suddenly to Shih Tzu form and he started taking deeper breaths. I let out a strangled sigh of relief and scooped him up into my arms, flying as fast as I could to the car.

I yanked the door open, set Link in the back, and cursed myself for not remembering my keys, which were still sitting in my desk. If I had them, I could start the car and be Phoebe’s getaway driver. Instead, I rushed back to where she and the vamp were having a mental-strength showdown.

His eyes met mine and rage burned in their chilly depths. I shuddered and scanned the yard for Phoebe’s pack. There. Right beside the fallen bald man. I rushed to his side and landed with an ungraceful thump. My knee gave out on impact and I went down, crashing into him. “Ouch!”

Ignoring the searing pain in my knee, I scrambled over his prone form and grabbed her pack. Reaching in the front pouch, I closed my fingers over her keys and scrambled to my feet.

A hand shot out and grabbed my ankle, pulling me back down.

“Willow!” I heard Phoebe’s panicked cry and did the only thing I could think of. I elbowed the bald man in the back and then brought the stun gun down on him, ensuring he wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon.

“Run!” Phoebe commanded from behind me. I’d lost sight of her while grappling with Baldy. But as I turned, I found her shaking and alone, her magic gone.

“Phoebs?”

She grabbed my arms and dragged me to the back of the car. But the vamp stood at the driver’s side, glowering at both of us. If he wanted to, he could probably pick up the entire car and toss it down the street. Vamps in general were strong, but the really old ones were almost unstoppable. Especially when they couldn’t be burned by the sun.

Phoebe tried to stumble past me toward the vampire but was clearly weakened from her impressive display of power. She’d never survive another full-on attack.

I pulled her back and clutched my stun gun, more than grateful Phoebe had thought to get me one. “Be ready to get the hell out of here,” I ordered. I might not be trained in physical combat, but damn it, I wasn’t afraid of electrocuting someone’s ass. Hopefully he was drained enough that the gun would buy us a few seconds to get the hell out of there.

The vamp moved so fast, I didn’t even see him coming. One second, I was headed for him, gun in hand, and the next I was lying face-first on the rough asphalt pavement. “You’ve messed with the wrong vampire, Rhoswen,” he hissed into my ear. “Hear me? You know I can’t let you live since you’ve learned my secret.”

My world spun with equal parts agony and fear: the pain from where his hand pressed into my back, burning every last nerve ending, and the fear from not knowing how to fight such a powerful being. My gun had fallen on impact. I had no idea where it had gone. Link was out of commission in the car, and Phoebe had used up almost all her magic. I was going to die at the hand of this unknown daywalker.

The vamp brought his mouth down to my neck and whispered, “It’s been two centuries since I’ve tasted fae.”

“And it’s going to be another one before you have a chance, you sick son of a bitch,” Phoebe yelled.

I heard the buzz of the gun and from the corner of my eye saw Phoebe press it to the vamp’s bare neck. His body started to twitch uncontrollably. The Taser was running out of juice, judging by the whining sound, and I was still trapped beneath him, every last nerve ending screaming from the vamp contact and the residual electricity streaming from him to me. My head spun and everything started to go black. I’d soon be a ball of fire. It wouldn’t matter if the vamp wanted to kill me or not, I’d die from shock.

Using every ounce of strength I had left, I pushed upward, barely moving the stonelike creature sprawled over me. But when I bucked, he shifted a tiny bit and I rolled, tumbling farther into the street and over a pothole. Ouch!

I could barely get to my feet, but my adrenaline took over and I found myself in the driver’s seat of Phoebe’s car with the engine running. “Let’s go!” I cried to Phoebe.

I had one foot on the gas and the other on the brake. As soon as her ass hit the passenger’s seat and before the door was even closed, we took off, leaving a trail of rubber in our wake. I glanced in the rearview mirror as we sped down the street. The only things left of us at the house were our tire tracks, an unconscious human, and a very pissed-off, daywalking vampire.

Chapter 10

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Phoebe pounded her fist on her thigh and glanced behind us for the sixth time.

“Is he following us?” I checked the rearview mirror and saw nothing but midafternoon traffic. Then I eyed Link. His ears twitched, though he didn’t move. He was okay. The little guy was tougher than he looked.

“No.” She sucked in a staggering breath. “Not that I can tell.”

I sped through my third yellow light and headed down North Broad Street. “Where to? Back to my store?”

Phoebe, visibly shaking, didn’t answer.

“The Void?” We should tell them about the new daywalker. Besides, I had the pictures and we needed an analyst to track down identities.

“No. Not yet.” She sat back in her seat, her eyes closed.

I gripped the steering wheel so tight my fingers started to cramp. “We need to tell someone.”

“Not the Void.” She twisted and peered at me. “What do you think they’ll do when they find out there’s another daywalker? They already want to study you and David for the effects. If they know another one exists, they won’t hold back. And you won’t be held in secret either. The orders will come down from the top. This is a game changer.”

Son of a…shit! I ran through the possible options. We couldn’t exactly go home. The vamp would track us there in no time. My shop? Harrison was there…maybe, if he hadn’t taken off after I disappeared. Allcot’s? I was under his protection now, but every fiber of my being screamed to stay away from him. He would protect me, but what would it cost in the long run? What would I owe him and how would he collect? Not to mention the vampires there would slowly zap my energy simply by existing. We could go to Tal’s place. As far as I knew, no one knew where he lived. But if we went there, how long would it be before he became a target?